Stoneclaw Totem
Overview '' Summons a Stoneclaw Totem with XX health (see Description by rank level) at the feet of the caster for 15 sec that taunts creatures within 8 yards to attack it. Enemies attacking the Stoneclaw Totem have a 50% chance to be stunned for 3 sec.'' Functionality This totem is used to draw aggro from nearby mobs. However, the totem does not produce any damage to nearby mobs and enemy players instead it pulses a weak aggro threat (weaker than the Warrior's taunting abilities) every 2 seconds. Since the totem lacks any damage output, it is very easy for any player to peel a mob from the totem with only using his/her auto-attack, but the totem cannot peel away the mob from a player once the player has engage it. Thus, this totem is ill-suited for any type of aggro management during combat. Some shaman players never use this totem (I count myself as one of them) since it does not affect greatly the player's gameplay in different situations. Some shaman players, however, do use this totem skillfully. Since it still has a weak aggro threat, it can still peel away the intial aggro from a mob that has not been engaged by any player. Most of the time, they use the totem as a decoy for the mob to engage, but (like any other totem) it has to be use for a certain purpose in mind, the right timing and the right place to use it, otherwise, it becomes useless (and possibly a detriment on your group and your gameplay). Also, the caster has to take into consideration that once the totem is destroyed by the mob(s) (like any other totem) they will instantly pursue the caster, unless the caster is out of their pursuing range before the totem dies. Use *Casting Time: Instant Cast *Range: Not Applicable *Cooldown: 30 seconds Cooldown *Duration: 15 seconds Limitations *Must be within 8yd radius of the totem. *Very weak aggro effect. *Long cooldown for a totem Rank Table |} Talents Talents that can improve the totem: |} Tips *As it is all too easy to gain more aggro that this totem, it tends to be useful only on opponents you have not engaged. Since they will destroy it quickly, this is really only useful as a distraction tactic. For example: Tauren shaman Abras gets killed in an instanced dungeon. On the way back to her body (and the rest of the group), she spots an ectoplasm blocking her path. Knowing (from experience) that she cannot kill this mob by herself, she drops one of these totems, waits for the ectoplasm to engage it, then runs past it --Wordman. *This is also real handy for end of combat adds (another example). Say you are killing off mob X and you hear the alert sound of another mob coming in to hit you. Drop the totem while still killing your current opponent and the new opponent will take interest in the totem and hit it while you finish what you are doing. Then, you can pop a heal and go after the new mob. If it doesn't keep them busy the whole time you have saved yourself some interruption of your fighting by having some hits go elsewhere. It will also keep a couple of low level adds busy for some time and allow you to pick up one at a time and kill them --Dga. *Another use for it is to combine the Stoneclaw Totem with the Fire Nova Totem. Since the Fire Nova Totem draws a lot of aggro once it is out, some players find it very useful to put the Stoneclaw Totem after the Fire Nova Totem, so they mobs will switch the threat from Fire Nova Totem to the Stoneclaw Totem. This will allow some time for the Fire Nova Totem to trigger its damage --Kultath. *This totem is useful in group PvP to lose aggro of enemy pets. Opponents who switched to another target after sending their pet after you would likely not re-target you. ---- Category:Shaman Totems Category:Nature Spells